Owners planting rice at Oyama Senmaida rice fields in Kamogawa City, Chiba Prefecture (Photo by NPO Oyama Senmaida Hozonkai)
CHIBA, May 11 – “Evangelion 3.0+1.0″ is the final film in the famous Japanese anime series released in March this year. It’s creating a buzz on social media on the actual location of the terraced rice paddies (tanada in Japanese) featured in the movie. Japan Agriculture News confirmed that the rice fields in the film is Oyama Senmaida in Kamogawa City, Chiba Prefecture, in the interviews with the people who have been protecting the landscape.
Rice fields preserved by “owner system” to welcome site visits by fans
“We can’t tell the name of the movie, but please let us use the scenery in the film.”
A nonprofit organization (NPO), Oyama Senmaida Hozonkai (Oyama terraced rice paddies preservation society), received the e-mail last spring. For a 40-year-old society head, Daisuke Asada, it was just one of many letters asking permission for commercial filming. “So, we responded in a usual way,” he recalled. The NPO hosted a location tour, as well.
Later, in a 15-second trailer, he saw rice paddies very familiar to him and realized that it was for the finale of the famous anime movie series.
The Evangelion series is a science fiction (SF) anime, which became so popular because of the description of woes and worries of the main character, a male junior high school student, Shinji Ikari, about his relationships with his friends and parents. A female character in the story, Rei Ayanami, was planting rice at the tanada rice paddies.
“We’ll be happy if seeing the rice fields in the movie makes more anime fans and young people have interests in farming,” Asada said.
Oyama Senmaida terraced rice paddies of about 3.2 hectares in total create beautiful curvy steps up the mountainside. It’s the tanada rice paddies closest to Tokyo and has many visitors from Tokyo and the surrounding prefectures.